Surat court stays 7-year-old Jain girl’s ‘diksha’ after father moves plea

A family court in Surat has stepped in to halt the proposed religious initiation (diksha) of a seven-year-old Jain girl, after her father moved the court alleging that his estranged wife was pushing the child into monkhood against his express wishes.

On Monday, family court judge S.V. Mansuri granted an interim stay on the ceremony, which had been scheduled to take place in Mumbai on 8 February 2026. The court has also directed that the child must not participate in any preparatory or related rituals until the matter is heard further. The next hearing has been fixed for 2 January.

Confirming the order, the petitioner’s lawyer Samapti Mehta said the court had accepted the father’s plea for urgent relief. “The judge has asked the mother to file an affidavit clearly stating that the child will not take part in the diksha ceremony while the case is pending,” she said.

The case brings into focus a recurring and sensitive tension within sections of the Jain community, where instances of minors — sometimes very young — being initiated into ascetic life have periodically triggered legal, ethical and child rights debates. While Jain monastic traditions view renunciation as a voluntary and spiritually elevated choice, courts have in the past been asked to examine whether children are capable of giving informed consent to such a lifelong commitment.

According to the petition, the couple married in 2012 and have two children. They have been living separately since 2024. The father told the court that disagreements over their daughter’s proposed diksha were central to the marital breakdown.

He claimed that while the issue of monkhood had been discussed earlier, both parents had agreed that any such decision should be left to the child after she attained maturity. The situation allegedly changed when the mother insisted that the girl take diksha at a mass initiation ceremony planned in Mumbai in February 2026.

The plea states that in April 2024, the woman left the matrimonial home with both children and moved in with her parents, telling her husband she would return only if he consented to the initiation. Despite his continued opposition, she allegedly pressed ahead with preparations for the ceremony.

Arguing under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the father has sought custody of the girl and asked to be appointed her legal guardian, saying this was necessary to safeguard her welfare and future. He stressed that at seven years of age, his daughter was incapable of understanding or consenting to a decision that would permanently alter her life.

The petition also makes a series of allegations about the mother taking the child to religious gatherings without his approval. It claims that on one occasion the girl was left alone with a religious guru at an ashram in Ahmedabad, and on another, she was kept at a Jain monk’s ashram in Mumbai where the father was allegedly denied access to meet her.

Earlier this month, Judge Mansuri had issued notice to the mother, asking her to respond to the custody plea by 22 December. With the interim stay now in place, the court will next consider whether the child’s participation in religious life can continue in any form, and how the question of consent, guardianship and the child’s best interests should be legally assessed.

With PTI inputs